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Columbus, Ohio – Columbus Coffee Trail introduces visitors and locals alike to the city’s hot coffee scene, which features more than two dozen local craft coffee roasters (most single-origin) and specialty coffee shops. All of them share a passion for quality, but each has its own intriguing personal story about what launched their love affair with the bean.

A special Columbus Coffee Trail website, CbusCoffee.com, features rich content on the local coffee scene. Visitors can get a Coffee Passport at any of the nearly two dozen stops, or at one of two Experience Columbus Visitors Centers (in the Arena District or at Easton Town Center). After visiting just four of the 22 featured stops, coffee lovers receive a special Columbus Coffee T-shirt from Experience Columbus.

In addition to the city’s many artisan coffee shops and roasters, an annual Coffee Roaster’s Festival (held every March at Columbus’ North Market) and Columbus Food Adventures’ Coffee Tour highlight the city’s exploding micro-roaster culture.

Fueled by a number of enterprising entrepreneurs, just a few of the stops on the Columbus Coffee Trail include:

Fox in the Snowrocks an excellent coffee set up, offering pour-over and the usual espresso drinks – all beautifully crafted from coffee roasted outside of Ohio in Maine by Tandem Coffee Roasters. Regulars come for the food and the coffee. House-made hand pies are stunning. And the egg sandwiches with caramelized bacon, swiss, arugula and Dijon whipped cream are revered as among the best in the country. From a humble biscuit to the wildly popular custard donut or elegant lemon galette, the quality of Fox in the Snow’s vast selection of house-made pastries makes picking one a very difficult proposition.

Café Brioso roasts a wide variety of coffees crafted by owner-roastmaster Jeff Davis. Brioso customers enjoy the process as much as the product, as expert baristas concoct the perfect cup. The ever-changing, made-from-scratch soup and sandwich menu is designed to perfectly complement the brew. www.cafebrioso.com.

Impero Coffee Roasters treats the act of coffee roasting as an art form. This family-run shop is a hit in Columbus’ trendy Short North arts and entertainment district. Entertaining baristas, quality coffee, perfect espresso and a locally sourced food menu draw crowds, even late into the evening.www.imperocoffee.com.

Mission Coffee Co. is the new kid on the block, helping coffee aficionados interact with their java. Mission taps every imaginable brewing technique, from the most traditional to the most modern, including: pourover, Chemex, Clever, siphon, drip, woodneck, French press and espresso. www.missioncoffeecup.com.

Stauf’s Coffee Roasters, the senior member of Columbus’ coffee club and big daddy to Cup o’ Joe and MoJoe Lounge coffee shops, opened in 1988. This pioneering coffee roaster imports the highest quality Arabica beans from 20 countries, then hand fires them in a gas-powered roaster. www.staufs.com.

Cup o’ Joe and has been pouring great brew for two decades, consistently being voted by locals as the city’s best coffee house. Getting its fresh-roasted beans from big brother, Stauf’s, Cup o’ Joe is obsessed with the perfect cup of coffee, carefully ensuring it sells no bean past its prime. http://www.cupojoe.com/

One Line Coffee’s superb roasts are a natural consequence of its father-son owner team’s dedication to tracing each cup of coffee back to the farm where its beans were cultivated. Mark and Dave Forman have been sourcing and roasting fine coffee for nearly a decade. Their Columbus coffee house opened in 2012 and features a one-of-a-kind cupping lab where coffees are profiled, roasts perfected and each brew’s subtle notes experienced and charted. www.onelinecoffee.com

The Roosevelt Coffeehouse, opening this fall, pours by the motto, “Good coffee, for good,” as it plans to use profits from its coffee shop, cafe and concert venue to help provide clean water and fight hunger and human trafficking. http://www.rooseveltcoffee.org/

Boston Stoker serves some of the world’s finest coffee and tea, including single-source coffee beans from African, American and Asian-Pacific roasters. A robust retail store and knowledgeable staff offer great education and coffee and tea accoutrements. http://bostonstoker.com/.

Columbus is a city unlike any other. Vibrant and alive, Ohio’s capital is known for its open attitude, smart style and entrepreneurial spirit. Columbus’ uncommon blend of neighborhoods, arts and culinary experiences, events, attractions and accommodations are made unforgettable by its diversity of outgoing locals who warmly welcome visitors. Free travel guides, maps, online booking and detailed information are available at www.ExperienceColumbus.com or 866.397.2657 (866.EXP.COLS). Visitor information is also available on Facebook: facebook.com/ExperienceColumbus and facebook.com/ColumbusFoodScene, Twitter: @ExpCols and Pinterest.

Logan, Ohio – Two new trails just opened in Ohio’s Hocking Hills State Park, adding even more reason for visitors to explore this spectacular natural destination. These newly accessible areas of the park include Whispering Cave which, due to its unusual acoustics, allows a visitor who whispers at one end of this huge cave to be heard clearly by another hiker who stands 275 feet away at Whispering Cave’s other end.

Hemlock Bridge Trail also just opened, connecting to both the Grandma Gatewood (Buckeye) Trail and Cedar Falls. Hemlock Bridge Trail features the park’s first-ever swinging bridge, which carries hikers over Old Man’s Creek at its confluence with Queer Creek, so-named because its water flows in a different direction than expected.

“Now that travelers can access both Whispering Cave and Hemlock Bridge Trail, they have two more beautiful reasons to visit the Hocking Hills,” said Hocking Hills Tourism Association Executive Director Karen Raymore. “Add these to the region’s many active experiences, such as rappelling, kayaking, canopy tours, eco tours, horseback riding, antiquing and other activities, and our visitors typically find they need to extend their stay in order to get it all in.”

Raymore added that access to Hocking Hills State Park’s many natural wonders – including parking – remain free, as Ohio State Parks are among only a few remaining state park systems in the U.S. that do not charge visitors.

Raymore also pointed to the area’s quirky stops like tours of Columbus Washboard Company, the last remaining washboard factory in America, and the Paul A. Johnson Pencil Sharpener Museum as additional attractions that intrigue travelers heading to the Hocking Hills.

Details on the new attractions are easily accessed on the Explore Hocking Hills website, where travelers can plan your trip full of unforgettable excursions, including hiking the region’s miles of wooded trails that take them past breathtaking waterfalls, caves and rock formations.

Located 40 miles southeast of Columbus, Ohio, Hocking Hills offers once-in-a-lifetime experiences that make every day feel like Saturday, with plenty of Admission: FREE activities. The region boasts a wide variety of affordable lodging, from camping, cabins and cottages to hotels and inns. In addition to hiking trails, parks and forests, the Hocking Hills is the Canopy Tour Capital of the Midwest, with 55 ziplines being offered via three distinct guide services. Unique gift and antique shops, canoeing, horseback riding, golf, spas and more add to the allure of the Hocking Hills as the perfect place to unplug. Complete traveler information is available at ExploreHockingHills.com or 1-800-Hocking (800-462-5464).